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All together now By Vered Lee Tags: Israel, Communes Nowadays, the word 'community' mainly evokes someone in front of a PC, connecting to any number of online networks. Certainly, there is no apparent link to the original meaning of the word, or to the sex/drugs/rock 'n' roll communes of the 1960s flower children, or to the kibbutz. But aside from the flourishing Internet communities, we are seeing an increase in the number of groups - concrete rather than virtual - that are developing creative models of communal life and social action. In Israel today, there are some 60 groups of people who have chosen to establish shared homes in distressed areas, and to work within these areas. We visited six such communities to examine - beyond the lofty ideologies - how they manage such everyday issues as dishwashing, different musical tastes, joint bank accounts, and relationships in a kind of expanded family. The journey began with a visit to Nir Moshe, where a group of anarchists lives and grows vegetables on an organic farm. In Jaffa, we visited a group of young Jews and Arabs who are trying to develop a model of coexistence, and in Jerusalem we came across people whose collective occupies half an apartment building. It turns out that the communal dream need not end at the age of 20 with youth movements like Hashomer Hatzair and Noar Haoved Vehlomed ?(Working and Studying Youth?). There is a relevant alternative to an urban life based on the model of personal success, amassing private capital and developing a certain alienation to society. Students, musicians, young parents and high-tech workers in the communes we visited are proving this. Perhaps the time has come to seek an alternative to the nuclear family with 2.4 children and a dog? Advertisement Anarchist Commune, Nir Moshe Members: Peleg Michaeli 25, mathematics student and builder of Internet sites; Stav Shafir ?25?, journalism and sociology student; Asaf Chirtekof 25, has a degree in teaching biology and chemistry and builds Internet sites; Saar Ostreicher ?25, dancer and poet; Iris Levy ?34?, holistic treatments specialist; Kobi Shalev ?26, specialist in building with mud; Lea Milman 22, builds mud homes, artist; Amit Ravid 28, Yael Shilo 26, and Arik Barnes 26, former teachers in democratic schools, currently taking a break; and Gadi Avidan 26, educator. History: The anarchists' commune was established about seven years ago. The founders, Michaeli and Chirtekof, lived for a time in a rented apartment in Tel Aviv, then moved to a villa in Be'er Yaakov. Michaeli: "We chose the area randomly. Not for social-welfare reasons. We looked for an accessible place, close to the railway line, so everyone could get there.?" The commune's public activity took the form of putting up signs and singing songs of love and freedom at bus stops in the town. Plot of land: After a series of ups and downs, the group has now taken possession of Admama, a permaculture farm in Nir Moshe, a moshav ?(cooperative farming village?) in the Negev, covering 11 dunams ?(almost four acres?). It will be theirs for a year. Chickens and a donkey roam the grounds, and there is a grove that yields plums, figs and apricots, and a greenhouse for pumpkins, tomatoes and cucumbers. There are compost toilets scattered around, as well as a spectacular shower whose ceiling is interwoven with a vine and clusters of grapes. The communards sleep in a seven-room house, and have begun to build mud homes to help alleviate the overcrowding. Nearby is a space that serves as a communal kitchen. Atmosphere: "What characterizes our commune is that there are no rules, no framework and no definition," Michaeli says. "It is based on freedom." Shafir, his girlfriend, who is a student in London within the framework of a Palestinian-Jewish project, adds, "Life in the commune is not limited by place or time. I can go off to study and still be part of the group." Life: Shafir: "Communes generally hold group days and are occupied with themselves. We do not follow a routine like that. We are just engaged in living, without any limiting framework. Every commune has all kinds of rules, which are an addition to the communal life, including group days, everyone gets a certain amount of money, and there are also rules about how much money goes into the collective fund. We find all this very strange, because we want to see each other as members of a family." Why a commune? Michaeli: "It makes me happier to know that I don't have private funds. The absence of money that is mine alone is a liberating thought. In general, the fact that I have nothing that is only mine, the fact that I always share things with at least one more person, makes me happy." Collective fund: The anarchists' commune has created a financial model of an open fund based on the principle of "put in as much as you want and take out as much as you want." Chirtekof laughs: "I use Michaeli's account as savings and he uses mine as a current account. There is a force that drives us all, and it is called love and trust. Everything is based on that. There is no large apparatus here of 200 people, and that is why it works. We are friends, partners, and we love one another, like in a family." Bank clerk: The communards recall the bank clerk who used to call all the time, trying to understand "how many people enjoy one account?" Cover story: Chirtekof: "For years, friends who were not in the commune thought I was a Shin Bet [security service] agent. They were so far from grasping the idea that they thought it was a cover story. Nowadays they no longer find it hallucinatory. Even our parents got used to it." The future: "Every group or commune has a mission or an avocation. Ours is to be happy. We do not get up in the morning with the ambition to preach and teach and reform our milieu. We are not missionaries. I believe that if I am happy, I will be a better person and that will be better for my milieu, and that is what I am engaged in." Vegetables: Says Ostreicher, "The Buddhist stream, which looked inward, into itself, was more beneficial than the Communist stream or the Christian stream, which tried to help others in the belief that they were doing good, and ended up conquering the world and doing wrong. We prefer to get up in the morning and tend to the vegetables." Mifras Group, Kiryat Shalom Members: Elad Harel ?24, coordinator of the Tel Aviv branch of the Social-Economic Academy and an assistant kindergarten teacher; Eran Segal 24, group leader in Bina (a Jewish education organization) and an employee in a Tel Aviv restaurant; Ido Roth, ?23, student and teacher of music; Nir Balitz, 23, cook and activist in the Pardes social action association; Haran Sened, ?23, information security specialist in high-tech, works with children in Tel Aviv?s disadvantaged Shapira neighborhood; Ayelet Yaari ,24?, waitress and ceramics teacher; Doron Timor, 26, editor on the sports Internet site ?One?; and two others who are not in the photo: Philip Levine, 25, who will begin graphic design studies in October, and Boaz Orman, 24, currently abroad, and set to begin law studies this fall. The home: Two small rented houses - one with five rooms, the other with four - in the Kiryat Shalom neighborhood of Tel Aviv, a couple of minutes walk from each other. Each group member has a room of his own, and Yaari and Roth, a couple, share a room. In the yard is a seething compost bin. Genesis: For four years, former members of the Nahal paramilitary brigade examined the possibilities of furthering the communal experience in an urban setting, while also adapting it to the needs of twenty-somethings. The commune came into being two years ago. Collective fund: Each member receives NIS 500 a month for living expenses, and the rest of the outlay is drawn from a common fund. Sened: "We adopted the kibbutz slogan, namely 'all the salaries of the group's members go into one treasury, and each person receives according to his needs." Yaari: "We are in good economic shape, much better than if we were living alone, and we have even created pensions for each member of the group." Timor: "Outside there is the situation of inequality we were raised in - if you are a teacher you will earn little, if you are in high-tech you will have a very high salary. The shared fund we created allows us to eliminate that state of affairs. We are also saving money and allowing people who can't find work to invest in searching." First major acquisition: An electric guitar costing NIS 13,000 for Roth, the group's musician. The purchase was deemed an "essential need." Entertainment: "We have our own evenings of culture and films," Yaari says, "hosting friends, communal meals shared with friends of friends, and 'group days.' Our needs do not revolve around culture, consumption and waste, but our treasury is definitely receptive to financing studies, interest groups and enrichment." Cooking: Everyone. Noise: "It doesn't bother us, you get used to it," Ayelet says. "Yesterday I got home at night with my boyfriend and the place was dark and asleep, and I was sad that there was no one awake to talk to." Gender balance: Ayelet, Roth's partner, is the only woman in the group. The boys: "Please write that we need girls, and we don't understand why girls aren't joining. We are into expanding the group." Ayelet: "I think conservatism and pre-judgment prevent women from joining. Too bad. It's an experience." Communal activities: Once a week all group members take a whole day off ?(their employers have to accept this singular need?) and devote it to themselves. They discuss the state of the group, study philosophical texts and delve into social issues. They also have a communal meal at least twice a week. Kiryat Shalom: "We didn't want to live in Ramat Aviv and travel in the morning to pat a kid in a poor neighborhood and then come back at the end of the day to a luxury home in a socially alienated neighborhood," Sened explains. Harel: "We situated ourselves in the south of the city because Tel Aviv is becoming a city of rich people and developing intolerable [social] disparities. When the struggle will start, we want to join it from the grass roots." Grassroots: The group tried to enlist 100 residents of Kiryat Shalom and the Shapira neighborhood to organize a consumer cooperative. Balitz: "The goal was to organize jointly with the neighborhood residents. We made a few successful purchases of fruits and vegetables, but in the meantime we decided to freeze the project and spend more time developing and studying the model." Naama Group, Upper Nazareth-Migdal Ha'emek Members: About a hundred, aged 21-38, a quarter of them with families. The home: They live in about 30 rented places in the two towns, for the past eight years in Migdal Ha'emek and for five years in Upper Nazareth. The homes are diverse in size and type: single-family houses, apartment buildings. The same goes for the composition of the tenants: sometimes four members of the group live in one place, sometimes couples or families. The model: The Naama Group (an acronym for the two towns) is trying to fashion a community based on the traditional kibbutz model, grounded in partnership. But in contrast to the kibbutzim, which have an agricultural or industrial economic base, the members of the community feel that their mission lies in education and social issues. Genealogy: The group's members are from the Mahanot Ha'olim youth movement, affiliated with the Labor movement, and chose to locate in Migdal Ha'emek, and then Upper Nazareth, because of their understanding that the local population is weak: immigrants from the former Soviet Union, at-risk youth, Haredim, alongside an established population. Lilach Rose Vagshal, 38, a mother of three, runs a nursery school: "We deliberately chose to live in an area where there is a large population of at-risk youth and where there is a great social challenge. We also got cooperation from the mayor of Migdal Ha'emek." Atmosphere: Ninety percent of the members are teachers and pedagogues, and they operate a range of educational projects in the towns, including nursery schools, after-school help and enrichment for grades one to four, programs to prevent pupils from dropping out and help them with matriculation exams, and even a project to integrate refugees from Darfur who arrived in Israel on their own and are living on Kibbutz Naaran in the Jordan Valley. Entertainment: Twice a week there is a group meeting, which includes social events, studying, seminars on educational subjects, and a general emphasis on a shared cultural creation that reduces consumption. Library: In Migdal Ha'emek the group rented a villa that is used as a meeting place and a work space for the members. The living room has been converted into a lending library of about a thousand books. Leading genres: education, Zionism, belles lettres, pioneering, the kibbutz. Communal activities: Once a week, in groups. On Fridays, there is a Shabbat reception in the communal villa. In Upper Nazareth, the ceremony, which consists of literary texts, blessings, and reading from the weekly Torah portion, is held with immigrants from the FSU and single-parent families, in order to draw them closer to the community and empower them. Collective fund: Salaries enter a joint account, and each person or family receives money for living expenses according to their needs. Nir Rubin-Syrkin, 31, coordinator of educational activities: "It is a minimum wage, but it's worth it, because the quid pro quo is spiritual wealth. Everyone grumbles about violence in society, and intolerable disparities have been created, and there are a lot of homeless children. We believe that one should act and live in the way one wants society to be. I am not waiting for someone to create a world that everyone dreams of, a world of harmony and dialogue. I am living that world. When there are a hundred people around you who are saying the same thing, you don't feel like a patsy, or a weirdo, or alone. On the contrary, you are filled with strength and are transformed, however strange it may sound, into an optimist." Sadaka-Reut, Jaffa Members: Liba Neeman , 18, from Tel Aviv; Roga Koren, 19, from Haifa; Ben Sirota, 19, from Mitzpeh Harashim; Omri Gershon, 19, from Kibbutz Hama'apil; and Sama Shakra, 19, from Jaffa. The home: A four-room apartment in the heart of Jaffa. The living room has wallpaper with a floral pattern, a dark brown bureau, a fir tree and a poster referring to 40 years of occupation - the only item that betrays a political orientation. ?(Neeman: "We decided not to hang flags or symbols of the two nations.?") Sadaka-Reut: Founded in 1983, the association promotes partnership between young Jews and Arabs throughout the country. The inhabitants of the apartment commune in Jaffa, which has been in existence for the past five years, are activists who engage in volunteer community work and staff the association's centers. Why a commune? "I grew up in Haifa, which is a mixed [Jewish-Arab] city," Koren says, "but I did not learn Arabic, and apart from construction workers, I had no interaction with Arabs. One of the reasons I chose to come here is that I want to go around every day with the knowledge that there is a suppressed minority here and work to change that situation." Shakra: "All my life I grew up in a mixed community. I think it is impossible to create the change alone, without the other side. Our future is linked." Gershon: "I wanted the commune experience. I was personally and politically curious to see how it is to live with people I don't know, each of whom has a different take on reality." Livelihood: The association pays the rent for the commune and gives each member a stipend of NIS 500 a month. This month, after the present group completes a year of living together, a new group of young Jews and Arabs will move in. Demographic balance: Three commune members - two Arabs and one Jew - dropped out at the beginning of the year. Shakra is an active member of the commune, but doesn't live with the group. ?("I live two minutes from here, and members of the commune sleep over at my place."?) The result: a Jewish majority. Koren: "At first it threw us for a loop and we started to call Palestinian and Arab activists to join us. But in the end we accepted the situation. After all, we are not a political party, this is the reality, and having another Arab or Palestinian sleep with us is not what will advance us toward peace." Social activity: A "commune day" is held once a week: the group reads texts, tours the separation fence, listens to talks on social and political issues. The communards are active in social projects in the neighborhood, like their own Jaffa Youth Center, after-school activities in the Democratic School and an enrichment project for adolescent girls and young women. The Jews are also learning Arabic. Dishwashing: The partnership ends here: each person is responsible for his own. Housecleaning: "Happily for us, it doesn't happen much, so there are no arguments." Cooking: "Mediterranean cuisine is dominant," Koren says. "There were times when everything was served with tehina - not for political reasons, but from an innocent preference for healthy food." Sirota: "I don't accept the description - we have food from all communities here. Lessons: "A commune shatters the rosy dream," Neeman says. "I started to examine myself, and all kinds of questions came up: Why is it legitimate for me, as a white Jewish Ashkenazi girl from Tel Aviv, to come to Jaffa and assume that I can work with the local population? What makes me think I am better?" Koren: "The commune taught us that the way to a solution is not to sit around and say we love everyone and how everyone is a human being, but to talk about all the things we disagree about, even if that is not easy." The future: "Everything I experienced this year became a true part of my life," Koren says, "and I ask myself how I can avoid losing it when I go back to my natural habitat." Neeman: "I plan to study philosophy and do a general BA at Tel Aviv University, and I want to do volunteer work in the human rights field." Gershon and Shakra will be the group leaders for the young communards who will arrive later this month. Sirota intends to do national service in Harduf and work with handicapped people. The Horesh Group, Jerusalem Members: Esti Kirmeier, 29, economic adviser and social activist who will run for mayor of Jerusalem; Mickey Bekela, 31, banker; Yoni Weinrib, 33, editor of books on political thought and personnel coordinator in the Power to the Workers organization; Tal Ramon, 32, curriculum director in the Shalem Center; Michal, 27, and Ophir, 26, Tirosh, students and parents of Lea, ?1.5 months?; Michal Gur, 30, PhD student in biology; Michal Gomel, 26, social worker; Tzafrir Gidron, 27, history and civics teacher; Naama Orpaz, medical student; and Liron, 25, a medical student who will join the group later this month. The home: They rented six apartments in a building in the city?s Kiryat Yovel neighborhood. Quality connection: Gidron: "The partnership in the same space creates a quality connection and makes it possible to create a distinctive culture and an informal life structure." Jerusalem: "Jerusalem is being abandoned by middle-class families and becoming a city for the rich and the ultra-Orthodox. It is becoming a task for secular groups and secular young people to continue living in the city and to fight for cultural and creative life." Why be comfortable? Most of the group, who served in the Nahal brigade, laugh at the fact that they feel disgusted by the word "commune," which immediately evokes a picture of ?two-three guys in one room, cooking the same thing every day ?(pasta with yellow cheese?), the garbage pails overflowing and no one cleaning up." Collective fund: The group has a joint bank account, and each member deposits between NIS 1,800 and NIS 3,000 a month. The rent and utility bills are paid from the account, which is also used to buy food and cover cultural expenses. Atmosphere: Social-political. Weinrib and Kirmeier are members of the Labor Party and intend to run in the municipal elections. Gidron was active in the teachers' struggle last year. Gidron: "The community enables an ideological social network, which is a source of strength for us and makes it possible for us to help in all kinds of struggles." Group days: They make a point of meeting once a week and studying together. Once every two weeks they hold an open meeting for friends who want to join them in studying. On Friday evening the group holds a distinctive, well-prepared "reception of Shabbat": one of the members bakes the challahs, and a ceremony is held in which the weekly Torah portion is read, followed by community singing, which includes secular texts. Childhood dream: Weinrib: "To my Tel Aviv friends, it looks like 'Melrose Place' or a version of 'Friends,' and they look at the whole thing with some envy. I, at least, feel that I have realized a childhood dream." Lea: The first daughter of the Tiroshes was born a month and a half ago. Yoni and his wife, Tal, are also expecting. Michal: "I am getting a great deal of support and help. The feeling is that the group is a family in every way, and every member is an aunt or uncle in every respect." Galim Community, Haifa Members: Omer Tsangut, 25, geography and environmental sciences student; Erez Deskel, 26, music and social theater student; Yuval Feiglin, 26, education and Bible student; Orly Ben-Gad, 24, psychology student; Anat Lutsky, 24, master's student in psychobiology; Dina Pinkus, 26, master's student in medicine; Nimrod Guttesman, 25, social work student; Yair Shahar, 25, education and geography student; Yishai Pinchover and Yonatan Shur ?(both 25?), high-tech entrepreneurs. The home: Six adjacent rented apartments in the Bat Galim neighborhood. Tsangut: "We chose to share apartments, but our partnership is directed primarily outward, aimed at the community, at the neighborhood. In this way each of us maintains his personal freedom, but we still work together through a learning process." Genesis: In May 2005, Shur, Feiglin and Deskel, three musicians who had just completed army service in the Nahal brigade, were looking for a place where they could combine musical and social activity. They decided to live in Bat Galim, identified as a distressed neighborhood - its population consisting largely of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Arabs, elderly people, at-risk youth and drug addicts. The Haifa Municipality acceded to their request to establish a music center in the neighborhood?s public bomb shelter. Local young people helped with the renovations, and the Rambam Medical Center donated acoustic walls. Social activity: The group runs the Center for New Music, which draws about 80 youngsters a week. They learn to play musical instruments, take voice lessons, and young bands are given accompaniment and private lessons. On Friday and Saturday, more established bands have the use of the center's rehearsal room in return for repairing instruments and helping younger bands. Galim also runs a club for young people from the Kiryat Eliezer suburb, which features a martial arts group, movie evenings, and workshops in newspaper editing and fashion design for 30 young people. Recently the group received a plot of neglected land from the Haifa Municipality; they are turning it into a community garden together with neighborhood residents. Recording project: This month the music center released its first CD, on which six neighborhood youth bands perform punk and rock in Russian and English. Why a commune? "We see how other people around us live and choose this as an alternative,? Guttesman says. "We don't want to come home from work, turn on the TV or the computer and finish the day like that, but instead to create a human environment. Here there is constant encounter, interaction and a platform for activity. It is productive, energizing and generates beautifully deep relationships." The high-tech connection: Pinchover, Shur's business partner and a high-tech entrepreneur, recently joined the community. The two are on the brink of signing off on a startup worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Pinchover: "I got back after a long period in London and looked for a sense of solidarity, a way of life that annuls alienation and encourages social involvement." He sees no contradiction between his high-tech business activity and involvement in the community: "I feel that this community creates an alternative to the capitalist society, and proves that it is possible to combine business with values." Joint treasury: They are considering the idea. Tsangut: "A lot of people in the group feel that the money thing can generate tension. The declaration of a common fund and a distribution of money are not necessarily related to the quality and depth of the ties that have been formed between the members." Relationships: Ben-Gad, Pinkus and Lutsky are spoken for. The guys are embittered: "We don't understand what the problem is for girls to join. We don't understand why women see it as a waste of time and as not serious. We are looking for women who will come in order to stay, not to choose a guy and take him away." The future: Their dream is to buy a building together. Tsangut: "We want to raise children in the same space and grow old together. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Tears of joy Shahar Zubari's bronze medal was Israel's first of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 'Germ of corruption' Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeats his prediction that Israel will be wiped off the map.

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